Introduced As New UW Coach, Fisch Comes Off as Confident and Polished

Senior safety Asa Turner, who entered the portal over the weekend, walked through before heading to the weight room and said he might consider coming back depending on who stays or goes.

Off to the side, maybe a half-dozen former Arizona assistant coaches, who weren't introduced, are already working on recruiting and meeting with UW players in and out of the portal.

Wearing a purple Husky sweatshirt, William Inge, DeBoer's Husky co-defensive coordinator and linebacker coach, appeared to be still working. When asked if he will join Fisch's coaching staff, Inge smiled and said, "We'll see."

Fisch said his first inclination was to go on the road and begin recruiting on behalf of the UW, but he decided to hold off and meet with Husky players, especially those on the fence about staying or leaving.

Asked if he was daunted by having just one scholarship quarterback — freshman Dermaricus Davis — on the roster and whether there was any chance of retaining freshman Austin Mack or Mississippi State transfer Will Rogers, Fisch, without naming names, said one or more has been attending team meetings.

Fisch joked about how he and DeBoer regularly discussed offensive ideas in 2022 but didn't talk so much this past season because they were both trying to get into the Pac-12 championship game.

DeBoer, when he took over the Huskies, said he wasn't rebuilding, he was reloading. Fisch likewise said this wasn't a rebuild, rather he still termed it a reconstruction, which means he could have it tougher than his predecessor. 

The new coach observed that he has the best office in the world looking out on Husky Stadium, Lake Washington and the Cascade Range. Asked if had envisioned himself running out of the tunnel, Fisch kept things light.

"I haven't had much luck in this stadium," he said, drawing laughs.

While with UCLA and playing the Huskies in 2017, he referenced former UW defensive tackle Vita Vea knocking his quarterback Josh Rosen out of the game with a concussion.

He brought up the 2022 UW-Arizona game, calling it a shootout and remembering the score in which DeBoer's Huskies won 49-39.

"Tough holding call," he said, drawing more laughs.

From here on, though, things will get a lot more serious for Fisch and his new staff as they try to restock the roster and win as much as they can while entering the Big Ten in the fall.

He name-dropped how he worked alongside such prominent NFL names such as Carroll, Belichick, Billick, Shanahan and McVay, seemingly intimating that college players might have a better chance of getting to the league if they joined his team.

Fisch said the coming Husky roster could turn over as much as anyone's across the country and it likely won't resemble the one that just played for a national championship. Yet he didn't look all that worried or dismayed with the big task at hand.

He already was selling himself and the Huskies, and doing it with swag, and not letting anyone tell him that W also could stand for wishful thinking.